Han Khan

Chapter 7, Cao Yijin
The sweet spring water outside the city of Dunhuang not far away looks black, flowing towards the vast Gobi and desert. There are many willows and poplars on both sides of the river. There used to be many birds here. Zhang Sheng remembers that his predecessor and friends often played and hunted here.

Now, there was a phalanx of three to four thousand men stationed on the other side of the river, an army in neat formation. Zhang Sheng squinted his eyes and stared at the front of the army, where there were several yellow flags with the word Cao on them. Zhang Sheng and the cavalrymen behind him rode their horses to the hillside in front, and he waved his hand to stop them from moving forward.

At this time, the other party also saw Zhang Sheng and his group. After all, this was not just a few dozen people, but more than 2,000 cavalrymen. The rumbling sound of horse hooves made it impossible for the other party not to notice.

At this time, not far ahead, six knights holding the Three-Star Flag of the Guiyi Army came galloping from the opposite side. Soon the six people arrived and stopped at the foot of the hillside beyond the range of the archers.

The knights rode on their horses and paced back and forth at the bottom of the hill. At this time, Zhang Sheng saw the leading knight, who bowed to Zhang Sheng while sitting on his horse. After he stood up, he said: "Da Lang, I am your brother Yuan Shen. My master is in front and has been waiting for you for a long time."

After saying this, he turned his horse around and walked away quickly.

Zhang Sheng said "fuck" in his mind, slapped his legs on the horse's belly, and continued to gallop forward. He was not reckless and waved to the cavalry behind him to keep up. The rumbling sound of horse hooves resounded throughout the dry and desolate world.

When they were only half a mile away from the enemy army, Zhang Sheng asked Yin Shanxiong, Zhang Xibao, Liang Xingde and fifty others to follow him, and the rest stayed on standby.

Because Zhang Sheng had already seen Cao Yijin's Sogdian dog slave.

Cao Rengui, who is in his forties this year, has a plump appearance. He wears a purple round-necked robe and a black fu hat, dressed like a Tang Dynasty man.

His face looked relatively gentle, without the high cheekbones like the Hu people of the grassland and Zhang Sheng. However, his thick, curly red beard and his thick eyebrows and deep eyes showed at a glance that this guy was indeed related to the Sogdians, or at least had deep Sogdian blood.

Since the establishment of the Guiyi Army, the Cao family has been continuously intermarrying with various Han Chinese aristocratic families in Hexi. Because the Guiyi Army at that time also encouraged Han Chinese nobles to marry with nobles of various ethnic groups, this strengthened the relationship between the Guiyi Army and the Hu leaders, and also ensured the Guiyi Army's ability to continue to launch wars against other countries.

Today, the Sogdian family Cao considers themselves as Han people.

The same is true for Zhang Sheng, the son of Zhang Chengfeng. He is a descendant of the Dunhuang Han noble Zhang family and the Khitan noble Li family.

But now everyone is fighting each other in the name of serving the Han people and the people, and it is indeed the Han and Tibetan people who suffer.

Therefore, it is not reasonable to say that Cao Yijin is not a Han Chinese. However, Cao Yijin's emphasis on commerce and big-powerism (depending on whoever is stronger) was one of the main reasons why the Guiyi Army gradually lost its blood and eventually became assimilated to the barbarians.

"Is that the eldest son of the Zhang family over there? I've been waiting for you for a long time, come here quickly." Cao Yijin, who was originally sitting, stood up and spoke when he saw Zhang Sheng walking in with the guards. He looked so gentle that if you didn't know, you would think they were just chatting about family matters.

When Zhang Sheng heard the voice, his body paused, and many things about Cao Yijin and this body's childhood appeared in his mind.

Cao Yi Jin, whose courtesy name was Rengui, was the grandson-in-law of Zhang Yichao and the son-in-law of Suo Xun. He was the current governor of the Guiyi Army and was also Zhang Sheng's uncle.

Just this year, he forced Zhang Chengfeng of Jinshan to abdicate on the grounds of public opinion. Zhang Chengfeng, who was depressed by the failure of the foreign war and could not bear the humiliation, died of anger. He was elected by the people of Dunhuang to become the Jiedushi of Guiyi Army and was recognized by Ganzhou Uighur and Zhu Wen.

When he thought of this, Zhang Sheng's body seemed to be out of control, burning with rage. He forced himself to calm down. This was the influence of his previous life. It was as if another Zhang Sheng in his mind was shouting loudly, "You bastard, you pig, I'm going to kill you......"

Fortunately, he was far away and Cao Yijin did not see his face which was now distorted by anger. When his face returned to calm, Zhang Sheng continued to move forward.

Because now Zhang Sheng knows that the death of his father Zhang Chengfeng, the loss of power of the Zhang family and the rise of Cao Yijin were caused by many reasons and did not happen suddenly overnight.

The disease had existed in Dunhuang for a long time, and it was not Cao Yijin who directly killed Zhang Chengfeng. Hatred is dispensable to Zhang Sheng now.

This brings us to an event in the past that we have to mention.

After the death of my great-grandfather Zhang Yichao, the Tang court did not recognize the title of my great-grandfather Zhang Huaishen, the Jiedushi of the Guiyi Army, and continued to split up the Guiyi Army, forcing it to retreat from the original eleven states to the two states of Gua and Sha.

When Huang Chao attacked Chang'an, my great-uncle Zhang Huaiquan and my grandfather Zhang Huaiding took advantage of the chaos to escape back to Dunhuang.

As a result, a situation of power struggle between my great-uncle Zhang Huaishen and my grandfather Zhang Huaiding emerged within the Guiyi Army.

Later, Zhang Huaishen and his six sons were all killed, and Zhang Huaiding became the new ruler.

I wonder how the Zhang Yichao brothers, who were once willing to sacrifice their lives for each other, felt when they saw their sons killing each other.

From then on, the Pandora's box of mutual hatred within the Guiyi Army was opened.

After his grandfather Zhang Huaiding died, he entrusted his young father Zhang Chengfeng to Suo Xun.

Suo Xun is said to be a descendant of Suo Jing. He is both a man of letters and military strategy, and he temporarily stabilized the Guiyi Army. Later, Tubo reoccupied Liangzhou, and Li Mingzhen, who was originally sent by Zhang Huaishen to guard Liangzhou, had died. Li Mingzhen's wife was the daughter of Zhang Yichao. She believed that Suo Xun had stolen the Zhang family's position in the Guiyi Army, and returned to Dunhuang to instigate the Zhang clan to launch a coup.

After killing Suo Xun, Zhang became the actual controller of the Guiyi Army regime. She did not return the throne to her nephew Zhang Chengfeng, but let her four sons Li Hongyuan, Li Hongding, Li Hongjian and Li Hongyi take charge of the power, and the Guiyi Army became the world of the Li family.

In 896, his father Zhang Chengfeng joined forces with his clansmen to kill all of Li's sons and regained power.

The achievements established by the heroes became the property that future generations fought over and killed each other for.

The continuous internal strife consumed the strength of the Guiyi Army, and the Uighurs entrenched in Ganzhou took the opportunity to attack Guazhou.

In order to strengthen the defense of Gua and Sha states, my father established six military towns to preserve this hard-earned legacy.

In the first year of Kaiping in the Later Liang Dynasty (907), Zhu Wen captured Chang'an and usurped the throne. The Tang Dynasty no longer existed in the world.

So, with the support of the Han and Tibetan chieftains in Shazhou, my father ascended the throne as emperor, made Dunhuang the capital, and established the Jinshan Kingdom of the Western Han Dynasty.

Dunhuang was basically maintained by major families. The Zhang family was the largest family. However, due to mutual feuds, the once prosperous Zhang, Li and Suo families were all wiped out.

Both my grandfather Zhang Huaiding and my father Zhang Chengfeng ascended to the position of Jiedushi of Guiyi Army in a coup. By the time of my father Zhang Chengfeng, the Zhang family had become an isolated family.

Today, Zhang Yichao's direct descendants are few in number, and with his father's defeat against the Ganzhou Uighurs, the fate of the Jinshan Kingdom of the Western Han Dynasty also came to an end, which created an opportunity for Cao Yijin.

Under the rule of his father Zhang Chengfeng, the Jinshan Kingdom of the Western Han Dynasty was troubled both internally and externally. The nobles and the people nominated Cao Yi to take power.

Afterwards, Cao Yijin abolished the country's name, restored the name of the Guiyi Army, took the title of Jiedushi himself, and gained recognition both inside and outside the country.

At this time, Cao Yijin was distracted as he looked at Zhang Sheng who was riding a horse and galloping towards him. He seemed to see again the image of Zhang Yichao, the Grand Tutor in Mogao Grottoes, leading the army to the east, the great hero praised by everyone in Dunhuang.

Today in Dunhuang, many people have Taibao’s blood flowing in their veins and are proud of it.

Now I see the great-grandson of Taibao Gong, the son of the late emperor, running towards me fully armed.

Looking at his eldest son Cao Yuande, second son Cao Yuanshen, and third son Cao Yuanzhong who were serving on the side, Cao Yijin sighed.

The eldest son, Yuande, had some talent in both civil and military affairs and was kind, but he was too rigid.

If the situation was stable, he would be a good leader who would maintain the status quo. However, the Guiyi Army is now isolated in the northwest of the Central Plains, surrounded by barbarians. Kindness without power is probably not going to be of much use.

Not to mention the second son Yuan Shen, who started living a ridiculous life right after getting married and is a man who can't even keep his city.

The third son is still young, and he handles things in a relaxed and measured way, but he lacks decisiveness and foresight...

"Father, if Zhang Dalang refuses to surrender, should we continue to contact Li Renmei and the Hexi Tatars?"

Cao Yijin half-closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then shook his head, "Let's wait and see! I'm worried that the Uighurs will go deeper into Gui Dunhuang and connect with the Kucha Uighurs on the Qilian Mountains. Moreover, the area west of Shazhou is vast. Now it's difficult for my Guiyi Army to defeat the Kucha Uighurs, let alone defeat Zhang Dalang.

Besides, the threat facing our Guiyi Army now does not lie with Zhang Erlang but with ourselves. Solving the problems in Ganzhou and Kucha Uighurs is the most important task now.

It was impossible for the Zhang family to rule Dunhuang and the Guiyi Army anymore. No one would support a brave warrior to continue the war. Zhang Dalang could not become the emperor of Jinshan Kingdom and the governor of the Guiyi Army.

It would be best if he surrenders and submits to my father. If he doesn't, that's fine, as long as he doesn't become an enemy of my Guiyi Army."

After saying that, Cao Yijin looked at his eldest son and said, "Yuan De, you also go down and prepare to prevent Zhang Dalang from going crazy."

Cao Yijin, who is just around forty years old, has taken the position of Jiedushi of Guiyi Army. He feels happy but also feels that fate is playing tricks on him.

The Cao family was not well-known among the big families in Dunhuang, but they stood out through generations of marriages with the aristocratic families, military generals, and Hu chieftains in Dunhuang, as well as decades of development in the Buddhist world.

The Cao family is related by marriage to more than a dozen of the major families in Dunhuang.

(End of this chapter)